Cheesy Amazing Mexi-Rice

Oh, you want to know more? I found this recipe on Pinterest and the ‘caramelized cheese’ part pretty much sold me right away. If you’re thinking “what exactly is caramelized cheese?” then you are in for a treat! You know when you make a grilled cheese sandwich and some of the cheese leaks out of the bread and sizzles on the pan, forming a salty, smoky, crusty piece of bonus cheese deliciousness? That is caramelized cheese, and it’s amazing.

This rice is going to knock your socks off because it is literally coated in caramelized cheese. You get some of that smoky, cheesy flavor in every bite. I know I’m dwelling on the cheese, but there’s lots of other great stuff in there too. Tomatoes, green peppers, black beans, olives, corn and chicken round this dish out and give it hearty Mexican flavors. The cheese is what sets this rice apart though. It does take some time for the cheese to caramelize (about 40-45 minutes total), but since you are absolutely not allowed to stir it more often than once every 5 minutes, you can do other things at the same time. The only problem is that you’ll be able to smell it and it smells incredible. I can’t believe I made it 45 minutes without diving face first into the pan.

I added chicken breast and black beans to make it heartier because I wanted to eat it as a main course, but if you’d prefer to serve it as a side dish or make it vegetarian it would be just as delicious without the chicken. I’m even tagging it as vegetarian and listing additional nutrition information sans chicken because it would be such an easy change. If you serve it as a side dish you can simply halve the nutrition information and make fourteen ½ cup servings.

I frequently look forward to eating my leftovers, but I think I felt extra excitement about these. It’s all in the cheese.

Cheesy Amazing Mexi-Rice

Yield:7 (1 cup) servings

Ingredients:

4 cup cooked brown rice (I used Uncle Ben’s and cooked mine the day before to save on prep time – recommended!)

6 oz (about 1 ½ c) shredded cheddar cheese

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced small

1 (14.5 oz) can petite diced tomatoes in their juices

1 cup fresh or frozen corn (I used frozen right out of the freezer)

1 (2.25 oz) can of sliced black olives, minced

1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup cooked chicken breast, shredded or diced (I used a rotisserie breast) – *omit if making this vegetarian*

2 teaspoons chili powder

2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

In a large (really large) bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix together with a large spoon until thoroughly combined.

Bring a large nonstick sauté pan (what I used) or cast iron skillet (do not use a stainless steel pan) over medium heat and add the rice mixture, spreading it out across the bottom of the pan. Let it sit and cook that way in five minute intervals, stirring in between. Do not stir more frequently than every five minutes – you are waiting for the cheese to caramelize before scraping it off the bottom of the pan! Scrape the cheese off the bottom and stir it in every five minutes for 35-45 minutes (I did the full 45).

I am just restarting WW and am new to the points plus plan. I know with the old plan when you doubled portions you added a point. Is that the case now? It would save me so much time to just get the points from here but for my husband who has more points I would probably need to double. So how do I recalculate or adjust the points?

I don’t think that was ever a rule on the old plan but I suppose overestimating is better than underestimating. It really depends from recipe to recipe whether the points per serving change when you eat multiple servings at once. I’m including nutrition information for all my recipes now, so my suggestion is just to double that and run it through your Points+ calculator on the site!

Making this right now! I am stoked to try it…it smells DELICIOUS. Although, I am sad because I had wanted to get some FF sour cream to go on top once it was done and I forgot to write it on my list. Oh well, c’e` la vie.

It was freaking phenomenal! My hubby even enjoyed it. Usually, when I make “light” recipes, he’s response is simply “Yeah, it’s good.” or “It’s ok.” but for this, he was “OMG GOTTA HAVE SECONDS NOM!” And the left overs were quite delicious, as well!

Quite yummy! 🙂 I forgot the chili seasoning but it was still spicy. Come to think of it, must have been because I used black beans with jalapenos and tomatoes with green chilies… ? Anyway, I left out the olives and green peppers since I just didn’t have them on hand.

I used reduced fat cheese and it still caramelized and got yummy. I also used canned corn. I think next time I would actually reserve some of the corn liquid or maybe even use creamstyle corn for a different flavor/texture.

Question for you all, my sister wants to make this for her hubby but he won’t eat corn. I think the corn adds a much-needed sweetness and a delicious crunch. What do you guys think she could use instead? I suggested peas and fresh chopped carrots already.

Just finished making this. All of my roommates are boys and when it’s my turn to cook (we do a rotating meal where everyone cooks once a week), they always hover around wondering what I’m going to cook. The past couple of weeks I have been using your recipes, always to great success! Tonight was no different, they absolutely loved it! 😀

I seriously cannot tell u how much we LOVED this dish! We added the chicken in as well & WOW! This dish IS…AMAZING!!! (: I am gng to do a review on it on my on blog STAT!(: I’ll let u know so u can come check it out!!

I recently showed my husband your website and asked him to pick a few recipes that he thought sounded good. His response was “Wow! I think it might be easier to tell you what doesn’t sound good because I think I’d like almost all of them” We ended up making a full week’s menu with recipes from your website. We had this one tonight and it was delicious! Last night we had egg and sausage cups (the husband ate 6 of them! he clearly isn’t watching his weight). Thanks for providing such great recipes!

You weren’t kidding about trying not to dive face first into the pan! I just got past my first stir but I had to sneak a bite. I used some leftover pork and didn’t have any olives and used half pepperjack and half cheddar cheese. Can’t wait for the finished product!